Special Delivery!
by Kirbtaro05
Summary: Valentine's Day is just around the corner! And the guppies plan on doing something extra special for Mr. Grouper: Something involving a necklace and a certain mail carrier. What could it possibly be?
1. Chapter 1

It was another beautiful day in Bubbletucky.

Beautiful, but unusual.

It was the second week of warm weather in February. While it was the month when the winter starts to whine down, it felt and looked as if spring had already sprung.

_"__What is up with this weather?"_ pondered Mail Carrier Kelly as she drove down her daily route, _"It's nice but… it's so weird how long it's stayed like this…not even a flake of snow."_

Despite being bewildered, she was glad there wasn't any snow to get in her way. Unlike last year: The snowfall was heavy last winter; it was hard for any driver to get around. The Bubbletucky Post Office was closed for a majority of the week and mail piled up like crazy! The delivery days afterwards were hectic! Not to mention the amount of shoveling she had to do to outside of work to keep her driveway clear. She was aching from head to tail! Kelly shuddered in her seat just thinking about it. Why did something so pretty have to cause so many problems?

The snail glanced at the mail bin beside her and sighed. The weather wasn't the only unusual thing that stayed consistent; Valentine's Day was coming up in a couple of days and the holiday caused her to have more mail to deliver than she normally did. Since late January, most of her deliveries consisted of Valentines, cards, love letters, boxes of candy hearts, cherry-filled chocolates and other delectable goodies. For a mail carrier, this holiday was always the busiest time of year- Next to Christmas, of course.

Something else was unusual: Kelly wasn't looking very forward to the holiday this year. She used to love it as a kid. She used to enjoy passing out Valentines to her classmates with the sugar-free candy her dad bought and adored spending the rest of the day with her family. But as she reached adulthood, she allowed her job and her relationship status to change how she viewed the holiday. Valentine's Day had gradually become rather...boring to her. Platonic was great and all but she wished she had something more _romantic_ to look forward to like everyone else. Or at least what felt like everyone else. The holiday was usually focused on that type of love; the emphasis of romance overpowered most of the things pertaining to the date. Seeing this every year was finally getting to Kelly. She was starting to feel left out now…when would it be her turn to experience this side of the special day?

The snail shook her head. _"C'mon, Kelly, focus!"_ she told herself in her mind, _"You have a job to do; you don't have time to be thinking about your love-life…besides, there's nothing wrong with being single-"_

She stopped herself when she realized how close she was to a yellow building that resembled a pile of bubbles fused together.

"Oh my goodness, I almost missed my next stop!"

She parked the truck once she was in front of it. She hopped out and went to get something out of the back of the vehicle. The door of the building raised and a large orange fish peeked out. He smiled and swam down to her.

"Good morning, Kelly!" he said in a chipper tone as he approached her.

"Good morning, Harold," Kelly replied as she continued to search, "I have…a package for you. If I can find it…"

"You do? Oh! Yeah! The art supplies! Heh, I almost forgot I ordered that. It got here pretty quick."

"A-ha! Here we go!" Kelly grabbed a medium-sized box and handed it over to the teacher.

"Thank you!"

"No problem, just doing my job!" she shut the back and began to make her way to the drop-off mailbox on the street. Mr. Grouper tried to converse with her on the way.

"The art supplies back at the school was supposed to last 'til the end of the year but the guppies have been so creative that they've been using it up pretty quickly. I figured I should order s'more before we ran out mid-way."

Kelly had already collected the letters inside the mailbox and had now made it to the front side of the mail truck but she turned to face Mr. Grouper as he continued to talk.

"I don't think it's necessarily a _bad_ thing that they've been using it up as much as they have; I should have thought ahead, really. I'm glad that my students have active imaginations and that they're putting them to good use. And I'm certainly glad they're not using the supplies to mess up the walls or something bad like that." He laughs at the thought of this. "They would never do that of course; they're good kids."

Kelly chuckled a bit. "Well…I gotta get going. I got a lot of things to deliver due to the holiday coming up."

Mr. Grouper quickly frowned. "Oh! I'm sorry; I didn't mean to keep you from getting your work done…"

"No, no, it's ok," Kelly insisted but with a possibility that she may be a little irritated. She got back into her truck.

"Um…take care! Have a good day!"

"You do the same!"

Mr. Grouper swam back to the school with the supplies. He couldn't get what just happened out of his head: Here was Kelly with all this mail to deliver and he was blabbering on about art supplies. He was just trying to be friendly…they never got to talk much because of their jobs. The longest they had ever spent a day together was when she delivered something for Clam Day. They've been acquainted since the beginning of the school year and he wanted to finally try to get to know her better. Today wasn't a good day to start.

_"__She probably thinks I'm annoying now_." He thought as he made his way to the cubbies. _"I should have known she'd be really busy this month…me and my big mouth…"_ the fish blushed out of embarrassment.

"Hi, Ms. Kelly! Bye, Ms. Kelly!" A voice shouted from outside. A blonde mer-child swam through the doorway, looking and waving behind her. She then looked ahead to see her teacher's back facing her.

"Mornin' Mr. Grouper!" she greeted him cheerfully.

The teacher snapped out of his thoughts and turned around. "Oh! Good morning, Deema!"

The preschooler quickly noticed the red tint in his face. She smirked playfully and raised an eyebrow. "You got a little something on your face." She said pointing at it.

"I do? What is it? Is it food?" his expression suddenly got frantic, "Is it a spider?!"

The red area of his face instantly returned to its natural orangey state. Deema couldn't help but giggle at his reaction. "No, but it's gone now."

"Oh," Mr. Grouper sighed with relief. He then chuckled at himself.

As Deema put her backpack in her cubby, she got curious about the package her teacher held. "What's in the box?" she asked him, trying to get a better look.

He smiled and pulled it away from her. "You'll find out soon," he said and began to swim back to the door to close it. Deema's curiosity increased as she went to go join her class circle.

"What's up, Gups?"

"Hi, Deema!" her five friends greeted her.

"So sorry I'm late, my mom was giving my curls a touch up." She bounced the bottom of her hair with her hand. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing much," said Gil, a boy mer-child with spiked blue hair. "We were just talking about how it hasn't snowed in a while. Then Mr. Grouper tried to explain to us about something called 'climate' and I sorta stopped listening..." he looked off to the side in guilt.

Deema tilted her head to the side in confusion. "What the hay is a 'climate'? Is that some sorta monkey?"

"Climate is the temperature and rainfall of an area over a long period of time." stated Nonny, another boy mer-child with vibrant orange hair and blues glasses that were shaped like scuba googles.

"Oh, ok, yeah, I'm surprised it stopped snowing already… and speaking of surprises…I think Mr. Grouper has a surprise for us!"

"Really?" asked Molly, a girl mer-child with bright pink hair. "What makes you say that?"

"When I came in, he was holding a box and when I asked about what was inside, he pulled it away from me and was like 'You'll find out soon'." She slipped into her best impression of the fish.

"I wonder what it could be…" a purple pig-tailed mer-child named Oona thought aloud.

Deema looked behind her. "Ooo! Here he comes!" she whispered to her friends.

Mr. Grouper approached the circle with the mysterious box slit opened at the top.

"Hey guys, guess what I just got?"

"Is it candy?!" Deema blurted out immediately.

Mr. Grouper laughed, "Nope."

"Is it a bunch of new toys?" guessed Goby, the third boy mer-child of the group, with short indigo hair.

"Nope."

"Is it an empty box and you're just playing around with us?" said Gil, trying to get somewhere.

Mr. Grouper laughed again, "Noooo, there's definitely something in here."

Molly decided to throw a guess out there. "Um, more books?"

"Oh no, we have _plenty_ of those." Mr. Grouper said as he gazed over to one of the various places the books were kept.

Oona gasped, "Is it a kitty-cat?!" her eyes grew wide with excitement.

The teacher frowned a little. "Uh… no, but you'll like what's in here just as much!"

"Then what is it?" questioned Deema impatiently.

Mr. Grouper finally set the box down on the light indigo rug that was in the center of the circle. "It's a box full of…" he paused to look at the children's eager faces, "...new art supplies!"

The eager looks on their faces intensified.

"Supplies!" Deema exclaimed with glee.

"That was my next guess." Gil claimed.

"What type of art supplies?" asked Goby, his creations already forming in his imaginative mind.

"A whole lot of stuff!" Mr. Grouper began to list the items: "There's crayons, chalk, and markers all with a hundred colors to choose from-"

"Even pink?" asked Oona, who had been using up a good majority of any pink art supplies they had.

Mr. Grouper grinned, "Yes, even pink. There's a bunch of different types of paper to use; construction paper, printing paper, patterned paper, shiny paper, there's glue, glitter… "

"Are there any safety scissors in there?" Deema asked "I'm just wondering since Gil broke all the good pairs."

"It was an accident!" Gil got defensive, "I didn't know all of them were gonna break…"

"You were trying to cut _rocks _Gil, of _course_ they broke!"

"I wasn't _cutting _rocks, Deema, I was digging them up with the scissors."

"Then why didn't you use a shovel?!"

"I couldn't find one!"

"Settle down, you two, there are plenty of safety scissors in the box." Mr. Grouper assured. He motioned for all of his students to get up. "C'mon over and take a look inside."

The kids came closer as he lifted the flaps and sure enough, there was everything he listed. They all peered at the colorful utensils in amazement. Oona swam over to her teacher and gave him a big hug.

"Thanks for the new art stuff, Mr. Grouper!"

Her action had slightly caught him off guard. He smiled and embraced her with his fin. "You're welcome, Oona."

"Group hug!" declared Deema, attaching herself to the fish's back. The others followed in suit.

Mr. Grouper felt so loved! He chuckled as he began to glow a lighter shade of orange. "Aww, you're all welcome…" He motioned towards the supplies, "Well, go on; make some art!"

The kids let go and dug into the box, checking out and pulling out this and that. Oona grabbed a box of crayons while Molly marveled the shiny paper, glitter and glue. The boys settled on sharing a box of markers and a pack of construction paper.

Deema inspected a new pair of scissors, studying the funky looking design on the handles. "These are better than the old ones!" she opened and closed them a few times. She then turned around to see where Mr. Grouper had gone.

The fish had swam over to a bookshelf near a window. In his fins, he held opened a thick chapter book with dark colors on its cover. Deema began to think as she watched him scan through the current pages. She then turned her attention to her friends.

"Y'know… Mr. Grouper does a lot of cool things for us."

Gil agreed, "Yeah, he's the best."

"…Since he's always doing cool things for us, I think we should do something cool for him for Valentine's Day!"

"Like what?" Molly asked

Oona, who was already hard at work with a new pink crayon sprang up.

"Ooo! I know! We can make a humongous Valentine's Day card! We can add glitter and stickers,"

"Yeah! And drawings!" Goby joined in.

Deema thought about it, "That's a pretty good idea, Oona… but I feel like we should do something more. Something…_specialer_."

Molly smiled, "I don't think that's a word, Deema."

"It isn't." Nonny confirmed.

"Well, you know what I mean." said Deema, "While the idea is nice, we should do something more than a card. Where would we find humongous paper, anyway?

"Oh…" Oona noticed the flaw in her plan and lowered her head. She then shrugged it off, "I tried."

"We could just tape the papers we do have together..."Nonny murmured, but no one heard his suggestion.

"What type of stuff grown-ups like to do?" Deema then asked.

"Reading the paper." Goby responded. "Maybe we could make our own for Mr. Grouper, we won't need really big paper, just a lot of normal ones."

"Hmmm, another good idea but I don't think we've hit the right amount of special yet. What else do they like to do?"

"Falling asleep in front of the TV." said Gil.

"That doesn't sound special at ALL!"

The blue-haired boy burst into laughter, "Ha! I know, I just wanted to see what you would say."

Deema smiles and rolled her eyes at this. "Ha, ha, funny boy. Ok, what else do adults like to do that isn't about reading, sleeping or watching TV?"

Oona tried again, "My mom likes getting back rubs from my dad."

Goby's face cringed, "Uh…I don't know about you guys but I'm not rubbing Mr. Grouper's back."

"I wouldn't blame you," said Gil, "that would be way too weird."

"Mmm-hmm." Deema and Molly agreed, Nonny nodded.

"Oh. Yeaaaah…that would be strange if we did that." Said Oona, realizing what she suggested.

They all thought in silence for a while…

Molly then spoke up, "…My parents like to go on dates."

Deema gasped, now _this _was an idea she could go with! Why didn't she think of it before? She struggled to respond through her excitement. "That! We should totally do that!"

The blonde guppy's outburst confused Oona a little. "We're going on a date with ?!"

"What? NO!" Deema quickly shot the question down and clarified what she meant: "_We're_ gonna_ get _someone to go on a date with him!"

"Oh, ok." said Oona, relieved. "But how are we gonna do that?"

"Yeah, how are we?" Goby wondered the same thing, "There are so many fish-and other folk-in the sea. How are we gonna find the right one to date our teacher?"

Deema got nervous; she didn't want to give up on this idea. It was just the right amount of special; it was perfect! She thought frantically in her mind….

She soon pounded her fist in her palm, her eyes sparkled and a grin spread wide across her face.

She knew just the one.

"Oh my gosh, guys! When I was coming inside the school, Ms. Kelly, the mail carrier, was leaving. And when I said 'good morning' to Mr. Grouper, his face was kinda red. Since he had the box, that means he went to see her before I came to school. Being around Ms. Kelly must have made him blush! I think he _likes _her! "

"OooOOOooo!" Molly and Oona exclaimed together and giggled.

"Ok, but what does having a red face have to do with liking someone?" Goby questioned.

Deema began to explain: "Well, sometimes people's faces turn red when they see or talk about someone they really _really _like. My big sister's face turns red when she talks about a boy from her class." she got a little sidetracked and looked away for a moment, "Heh, and she thinks I don't know…" she got back on track, "So… who wants to hook up Mr. Grouper and Ms. Kelly for Valentine's Day?"

Goby decided to go with it, "I do, I can't think of any other ideas."

"I'm in too," said Gil "It's better than doing nothing."

"It _is_ pretty special," said Molly, joining their side.

"It's _really_ special!" added Oona.

"I don't think we should do this." said Nonny, loud enough for his friends to hear this time. "It sounds too intrusive."

"What does that mean?" Oona asked him.

As usual, Nonny answered her. "When you're being intrusive, it means you're somewhere that you don't belong or shouldn't be in. In this case, Mr. Grouper's business. What if he already has something planned for Valentine's Day?"

Deema wanted to say something, but he had a point. She turned around to her teacher. Did she really want to risk ruining the plan? Only if the risk could end up saving it. It was worth a shot. She swam over to the book nook.

"Hi, Mr. Grouper!"

The orange fish lowered his book and gave the blonde mer-child his attention.

"Hello, Deema!"

"I have a question."

"What's that?"

"Do you have anything planned for Valentine's Day?"

"Other than coming to school, no, I don't. Why?"

"I was just wondering!" she flashed a smile.

"Oh, ok then."

Deema swam away and Mr. Grouper went back to his book. She came back to Nonny and presented the direction she came from with her hands.

Nonny stayed persistent. "He could still be married."

Deema swam back over. "Hi, Mr. Grouper!"

"Hello again, Deema."

"Mr. Grouper, are you mare-reed?"

"No…" he sort of sighed, "it's just me-"

A high pitched bark was heard. Mr. Grouper looked down to see Bubble Puppy by his side. He chuckled, "It's just me _and_ Bubble Puppy… for now, I suppose." He raised an eyebrow at his student. "Why?"

"Juuuuust wondering…again!"

The teacher chuckled some more, "Ok then."

Deema swam back to her friends with Bubble Puppy close behind. The orange fish wondered if he should be concerned, but he decided it wasn't something he should be worried about. This _was_ Deema after all, he was convinced she was just fooling around with him.

The girl once again presented with her hands. Nonny still didn't want to give up. "There could be other reasons why his face was red. Maybe he hurt himself or he was embarrassed about something. He also has the ability to change colors…"

Deema just smiled at this. She got closer to Nonny and put her arm around his shoulder.

"Nonny, Nonny, Nonny, Nonny…. Nonny." She shook her head every time she spoke his name, "Don't you want to do something special for Mr. Grouper?"

"Yes."

"Then what's the problem?"

"I told you, I don't want to be intrusive. We should do something else."

"Like what?"

"I…I don't know, just something else."

Deema placed her hands on his shoulders, rocking him a bit. "Come oooon, Nonners…"

The other guppies joined in the begging and pleading, layering over one another:

"Yeah, Nonny, c'mon!"

"Please Nonny?"

"Don't you wanna help us do something special?"

"It's for Mr. Grouper, Nonny… "

"OK!" The mer-child finally shouted, startling his classmates and even himself. Nonny clasped his hands over his mouth. They all looked at their teacher to see if he had heard Nonny's outburst. Mr. Grouper didn't hear a thing; he continued to read on as if nothing happened.

"Wowzers, that must be one good book." Deema remarked.

Nonny sighed, "Ok," he said a lot more calmly and in character, "I'll help with the date…"

The other kids cheered softly.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Oona wondered.

The curly-haired mer-child peered over to Mr. Grouper again to make sure they weren't being watched or listened to. "We still have another day left. I think we should go back to the plan later on. For now, we should do something else. I don't want you-know-who to catch on."


	2. Chapter 2

"Line up, everybody! It's time to go outside!" announced Mr. Grouper.

The guppies swam towards the back door and fell in line to perform their daily song and dance. Once this part of their routine was over, Deema, Molly, Oona and Nonny grouped together as they all swam out onto the playground.

"Did you come up with any new ideas for the plan?" Oona asked Deema.

Deema looked over to Mr. Grouper, who brought his chapter book outside with him. Sensing her stare, he peered over the book in her direction. Startled by this, she immediately looked away.

"Once upon a time, there were two salespeople!" she blurted out. Her friends were terribly confused. Deema leaned closer to them, "He's watching us!" she side whispered to them. "We can't talk about it right now."

"We could swim over to the other side of the playground or hide in the play set to talk about it." Molly suggested.

"That won't work, he'll get suspicious and start looking for us. We have to create a…a…"

"A diversion"? Nonny guessed

"Yeah, that sounds about right. We still have another day and the rest of this one; we still have time…C'mon, help me make the story!"

"I'm a salesperson!" said Molly loudly.

"I'm a salesperson too!" said Oona equally as loud. "And we like to sell… sails!"

Molly and Deema gave Oona a puzzled look.

"Y'know, _boat _sails… we like to sell sails for boats."

"Ooooh," The two understood now.

The four friends continued on with Deema's story.

Meanwhile on the other side of the playground, Gil and Goby found a ball to throw back and forth to each other.

"Do you think we'll be able to pull off the date thing?" Goby asked as he threw the ball back to Gil.

The blue-haired boy caught it. "I dunno, but it would be pretty cool if we can." He threw the brightly colored object back to his friend "I'm sure it'll make Mr. Grouper really happy."

Goby caught it, "Mr. Grouper seems pretty happy enough," The mer-child threw the ball back again. "Especially with that book he's been reading."

And Gil caught it again, "Well he'll be even happier!" Gil threw the ball a little harder this time, causing it to fly off the ledge of the platform their school stood on.

"Whoa!" Goby exclaimed. The two boys watched it bounced over to the other side of the street.

"Aww man!" Gil said in disgust. He stared at it for a bit then he looked at Mr. Grouper; still reading. He looked over to his other friends; still acting out their story. He carefully began to swim over the ledge…

Only to be quickly pulled back by Goby. "Dude, are you CRAZY?!" He whispered rather loudly, "You can't just go over the ledge like that! You could get in trouble!"

"It's not like I'm gonna leave school or anything, I'm just gonna get the ball and come right back."

"What if Mr. Grouper sees you?"

"He's too busy reading that book of his."

"What if he stops reading and notices you're not here?"

Gil thinks about this, "Hmmm, just to make sure… Bubble Puppy!"

Bubble Puppy came swimming from his doghouse. Gil grabbed a stick from the ground and held it out for the puppy to take with his teeth. The kid then pointed over to the orange fish.

"Go play with Mr. Grouper until I get back, ok, boy?"

Bubble Puppy whined at Gil and cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"Go on, boy, I'll be back soon." He motioned for the pup to follow his orders. "Make sure he doesn't look over here."

The puppy went to go do what he was told and Gil cautiously swam over the ledge. Goby soon noticed that he was being left alone. "Hey! Wait for me!" Goby whispered loudly as he swam after Gil.

"Arf! Arf!"

Mr. Grouper looked down, "Oh, hey, Bubble Puppy."

The pup picked up the stick he had placed on the ground and looked up at the teacher.

"You wanna play fetch?"

The dog nodded.

"Um, ok." Mr. Grouper placed part of his right fin inside of his book so he wouldn't lose his page and threw the stick over the puppy's head. The little dog quickly went to retrieve the flying object.

_"__I wonder if I can read a good chunk before he gets back..." _thought Mr. Grouper. He opened the book back up and found his sentence. As soon as he finished reading the first three words, the high-pitched barking returned. He looks down to his side to see Bubble Puppy sitting there once more, with the stick in his teeth.

"One minute, Bubble Puppy, let me read just finish a few more sentences." The fish said, trying to hesitate.

The pup whined a little and got closer to him.

Mr. Grouper sighed, "Oh-kay…"

The canine gave him the stick again and he threw it in the same direction, a little further this time.

The two guppies had reached the sea floor. They looked around the other side of the street, trying to figure out where their ball landed.

"The ball had to have landed somewhere over here…" Goby thought aloud. He then looked in the bush next to him. "Ah ha! Here it is!" he grabbed the object and faced the school. "Ok, Gil! I found the ball! Now let's get back to school!"

"Wait a minute, I think I found something." Gil said somewhere behind him.

"Found what?" Goby turned around.

Gil picked up the thing he found and showed it to Goby, "Check it out!"

In the boy's hands was a flat, dark blue gift box tied with a sliver bow.

"Wow!" said Goby in amazement, "Where'd you find that?"

"It was just lying on the grass, next to a bush by the street." Gil pointed to where he saw it.

"Hmm, weird…I wonder what it could be."

Gil shook the box and listened to the contents inside. "I have no idea. But it must be worth a lot of money!" he gasped, "Maybe it IS money! Like, a bunch of coins! I gotta open this!"

"We can open it when we get back to school, we _really _need to leave."

The two kids swam towards the platform.

Mr. Grouper sighed heavily as he grabbed the stick from Bubble Puppy for the tenth time. As he's about to throw it again, he begins to think about something:

"Where's Gil? I'm sure he would want to do this instead."

Bubble Puppy panicked! He quickly snatched the teacher's book with his teeth and swam away.

"What the-? BUBBLE PUPPY! Give that back!" He immediately swam after him.

The pup got Mr. Grouper to chase him in circles around the play set where the four friends were now acting out their story. They all paused for a moment to watch the two race around and around them. As Bubble Puppy made another turn, he spied Gil and Goby returning. He halted, giving Mr. Grouper a chance to scoop him up.

"Gotcha! Now hand it over…"He held out his fin and the little dog dropped it. He gave Bubble Puppy a puzzled look. "What has gotten into you?"

The puppy simply smiled, licked him and wiggled out of the fish's grasp. Mr. Grouper was terribly confused. "Weird…" he muttered.

The four kids resumed their story with Deema wrapping things up. "And so, the sailor and the sail salespeople became the best of friends. And they all lived happily ever after! Yay!" she provided her own applause. Mr. Grouper flipped through the pages of his chapter book until he found his page again.

"Ok guppies, it's time to go back inside!"

One by one, the kids swim through the back door. Gil hugged the blue box close to him, swimming a little sideways, hoping Mr. Grouper wouldn't see it. He didn't of course, he was back to reading his book.

A trio of little fish swam quickly down the street that was across from the school. The smallest of the bunch led the other two to the area where Gil and Goby were earlier.

"Where did you see it?" The biggest of the group asked looking around.

"I saw it right there!" She pointed to the bush by the road where Gil found the gift box. The middle-sized fish looked at the spot and the space around it. "I don't see it."

"Are you sure you saw it here?" The biggest asked again.

"YES!" the smallest exclaimed.

"Then where is it?!"

"I…I don't know." She admitted.

The biggest sighed, "Come on, let's go. We should've never told him we found it…"

The three slowly swam back the way they came.

"He's gonna be so sad…" the smallest said, feeling sad herself.


End file.
